Skyfall

I’ve never been a fan of James Bond although I live in a house with someone who is so I have watched, albeit under duress, the vast majority of the films.

The Daniel Craig offerings are the only Bonds that I have watched in the cinema. I vaguely remember enjoying Casino Royale and I strongly remember hating Quantum of Solace. The trailer for Skyfall was convincing so I went into the screen with nothing more than casual curiosity.

PLOT: After an assignment in Turkey goes very wrong James Bond (Daniel Craig) returns to London to discover MI6 is under attack. The attack then become personal when it becomes clear that M (Judi Dench) is the target of deranged terrorist Silva (Javier Bardem). END PLOT

My general attitude towards the James Bond franchise is that if you have seen one you have seen them all. The witty quips, the car, the martini, the ridiculous gadgets, the Bond girls – it has been lather, rinse and repeat over the course of fifty years and it has always bored me.

Initially I thought that Skyfall was going to be no different as I started to feel restless very early on in the film but by the end I was on the edge of my seat. I didn’t realise how invested I’d become until it was too late.

The relationship between Bond and M is more prominent in Skyfall than in previous films.  There is actually tension and a real possibility that Bond, who is struggling with injuries, might not save the day.

Daniel Craig is excellent as James Bond and he brings with him an edgier offering than Pierce Brosnan. In Skyfall Craig’s Bond is ageing, broken and in danger of being pushed aside by the younger generation of Eve (Naomie Harris), a character who seems rather pointless until the very end and Q (Ben Whishaw) the super brainy tech support.  Craig has great chemistry with Harris and Whishaw who are both fantastic additions to the cast.

Dame Judi Dench gets up from behind M’s desk and finds herself right in the thick of the action. It is always expected that Dench will put in a great performance with limited screen time but in Skyfall she is front and centre and steals the show.

Javier Bardem is effectively menacing and his interrogation of Bond is downright unsettling. Bardem is clearly enjoying skirting along the edges of overacting but Silva never steps into full blown crazy territory.

The success of the Bourne films means that Bond has followed suit and has become much grittier.  The tone is serious and although the Bond/Q scenes are amusing the familiar Bondian quips are few and far between however Skyfall is better off for it.

Thankfully the cheesy gadgets such as the god awful disappearing car have become outdated and are hopefully gone forever. In Skyfall Bond gets nothing more than a gun and a radio. The rest is up to him.

As expected there are a number action set pieces all of which are very slick and well executed. There is of course a motorcycle chase scene, a now mandatory feature in action films; nevertheless this particular sequence is very impressive. The opening credits on the other hand with that wailing banshee Adele were not so impressive.

Skyfall clocks in at 143mins which was probably a tad too long as there were a few occasions in the first half when I began to feel a bit restless - once the film got going time was no longer an issue.

I will never be a huge fan of the franchise but Skyfall is the first time I’ve ever not only enjoyed a Bond film but wanted to go straight into the next one. Skyfall gets an 8/10 and I wouldn't be too unhappy to watch it again in the future.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

To this day I still say with misplaced pride that I have never touched a Harry Potter novel let alone read one.  The same can now be said for the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

The Swedish films have always been appealing but unfortunately they have never made it off the dvds to watch list. There is something about this particular series which requires more effort than I am prepared to give.

To cut a long story short – I went to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 100% blind.

PLOT:  Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a disgraced journalist who is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the murder of his granddaughter.  Mikael enlists the help of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) an extremely troubled yet talented investigator to help him solve the mystery.  END PLOT

The murder mystery plot-line was strong yet in hindsight it had a real feel of “heard it all before” to it.  Despite having no knowledge of how this story arc would play out the casting made it quite obvious just who was likely to be the villain in the final showdown. 

The ending of the film was very disappointing as it just seemed to drag on and on and then on some more ensuring that I will now have arthritis in my knees before I am thirty.  

Lisbeth’s sudden ability to create disguises and steal bank bonds felt very out of place with the rest of the film.  The final scene with Lisbeth riding off into the snowfall after watching Mikael kiss his girlfriend was as dramatic as a daytime soap opera.  I have no idea how it compares with the ending of the book but it didn't work well on the big screen.  The last twenty minutes of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were incredibly weak.

Luckily The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had more to offer than the murder mystery plot with the character of Lisbeth Salander who is not your average detective.  The fact that Rooney Mara is essentially a newcomer worked very much in her favour and she was excellent as Lisbeth.  Kudos must be given to Mara as some of the scenes were very dark.

I am not against violence in film provided it isn’t shoehorned in like that one “fuck” in a 12A but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo did have some extremely graphic scenes of sexual assault.  It was an uncomfortable watch due to the content but also because of the performances of Mara and Yorick van Wageningen  The character of Bjurman, Lisbeth’s social worker, was very quiet, dangerous and probably more effective than the main villain.  This character played a very small, yet important role. 

Daniel Craig is an actor I don’t care for but his performance was less wooden than usual, Stellan Skarsgard's Swedish accent still sounds out of place even in a film based in Sweden and I was mistaken in my belief that Christopher Plummer had died.  The supporting cast were all fine but this is Mara's film.

Much has been said about Trent Reznor’s score although I cannot recall paying much attention to it whilst watching the film.  Reznor may have created a piece of music on par with Bach but it will forever remain unappreciated due to the fantastic use of Enya in the most unexpected of places.  Enya will finally learn what type of clientèle her music attracts. 

The film looked stunning and you can’t fault David Fincher’s direction.  I am a fan of Fincher but he does have a habit of making films which I love yet don’t watch more than once in several blue moons.  I appreciate everything about this film yet I know that it is unlikely to be viewed again. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is probably the best film I have watched in a long time and the fact that it was sandwiched between Sherlock Holmes and MI4 made it oddly refreshing to watch something dark over the festive period.   I absolutely loved the film and it scores a high 8/10; it would have scored higher if the ending wasn’t so long and drawn out. 

Did it inspire me to read the novels? No, and I say that without missing a beat.  The book snob in me can’t help but see it as another crime novel which just happened to get lucky.

Did it inspire me to finally watch the Swedish films?  They have moved slightly higher up my 2012 to do list. 

Cowboys and Aliens - contains spoilers

I have to admit that when I first heard of Cowboys and Aliens I thought it was a genius combination. I was completely sold after viewing the trailer many months ago however it was so overplayed I think I was bored of the concept before I even got to see the film.

PLOT:  Jake (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the Old West with an alien bracelet on his arm and thereafter gets arrested for crimes most of which he actually did commit.  Aliens attack and snatch the people of Old Town USA and Jake reluctantly teams up with Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell and Olivia Wilde to get the townsfolk back.  Nothing of interest happens.  Walton Goggins appears and the film picks up. Ella (Wilde) dies and I think that’s a brave and unusual move. Ella resurrects herself and I think that’s a stupid and ridiculous move.  Nothing of interest happens.  Jake drinks Apache juice and hallucinates hummingbirds. The aliens look crap.  Harrison Ford looks grumpy.  Walton Goggins reappears and the film picks up again.  The Cowboys win but the biggest loser is me. END PLOT

The notion of Cowboys and Aliens should have produced the perfect summer blockbuster.  It was never going to be a serious film but it had the potential, especially in Jon Favreau’s hands, to be a fun watch.

It took no less than seven people to write this absolutely shocking script.  I had no problem buying into the initial concept but the story did not hook me in.  I was impressed that the love interest had been killed off because it would have been the most unexpected death of the summer.  I thought throwing her dead lifeless body on the camp fire was a dark move but then she resurrected herself and it transpires that Ella is an Apache speaking peaceful alien from a recently invaded planet.

If Ella and her species special alien power was the power of resurrection and healing how the hell did they all die?  Hardly a major plot hole but this part of the film pissed me off.

The bracelet weapon annoyed me too – did the aliens only bring one?  If all aliens accessorised in this manner then why didn’t they use theirs in battle instead of scratching people to death?

Aliens, with their vast intellect and machinery, land on earth and destroy its people in an unexplained hunt for gold? You know you are scraping the bottle of the ideas barrel when you are ripping off fucking Battlefield Earth. 

I hated everything about the plot but one must remember that Cowboys and Aliens is a summer film and this is the time to look past all that and embrace the fun.

Daniel Craig plays Jake with no charisma whatsoever and is taking proceedings far to seriously although in his defence he isn’t required to do much but unbutton his shirt and stare menacingly at each member of the cast on various occasions.

I always feel sad when I see Harrison Ford these days and here he grumps his way through the film in what has become his usual manner.  It’s as though Indiana Jones got divorced, discovered whiskey, has prostate problems and is slowly dying of perpetual boredom. 

Sam Rockwell is usually pretty reliable but in Cowboys and Aliens he doesn’t get enough screen time and is almost to restrained with the same being said by the ever impressive Walton Goggins.

There was no particular weak link in the cast but there were no interesting characters either.

The Old West looked fantastic as did the wide open landscapes we got the pleasure of seeing whilst Jake et al were hunting down the aliens.  This is the part of the film I liked the most and it makes me want a Red Dead Redemption film even more!  The cowboy set should be recycled to make this film.

The aliens however looked shite and at their introduction they reminded me of a really juicy Imhotep.  They had no personality or emotion and were nothing more than generic video game cut-outs.

The futuristic flashbacks and the weird “aliens-eye-view” shots we were treated to just looked out of place with the rustic and natural cowboy setting.  I didn’t think the genres mixed well in this regard.

On paper the idea of Cowboys and Aliens is as brilliant as it is ridiculous but the final product is just an awful film.   It doesn’t even come close to guilty pleasure territory nor is it campy fun.  It is just bad.  It gets a 3/10 and that is mostly for the few cast members that I liked and the look of the Old West.

If they ever announce Cowboys vs Pirates  vs Ninjas (an idea which I have given more thought to than I ought to) I will be a bit more wary.